Big Manufacturers Cash In On Craft Chocolate Terms

On September 20th Godiva, chocolate manufacturer founded in Belgium and then sold to a Turkish holding company in 2007, has launched its first Single Origin bars.

The company has decided to take advantage of a growing trend.

Consumers are increasingly concerned with the origin of their foods. They demand to know where it comes from and ask for transparency throughout the supply chain. Third-party certifications, behind-the-scenes and additional info are what consumers look for.

Also chocolate lovers are on the hunt for signs of quality. Among the most popular terms, “bean-to-bar” and “single origin” seem to give some sort of self-assurance.

On this premise, chocolate giants decided to use these same terms to boost the declining sales of their products.

Godiva launches Single Origin bars. Read the article on ConfectioneryNews.com

In 2016 Hershey’s, Cadbury, Nestlé and Lindt have reported stagnating and even declining sales. With unclear labels and unethical practices, they are not a good fit for today’s responsible audience. The sweetness of their snacks is not enough to attract the new generation of health-conscious eaters. They want simple ingredients, trusted sources and high-quality instead.

How to gain those customers back?

Corporations have found their new battlefield: HIGH-END CHOCOLATE.

They have a huge advantage in marketing these new products.

Words like “high-end”, “fine” and “premium” chocolate have yet to be defined. With no objective standards to identify quality in chocolate (other than experience), the only indicator for inexperienced consumers is PRICE. What divides “high-end chocolate” from “low-quality chocolate” is the money they have to pay for it.

Corporations are adopting new strategies to convince consumers of the higher-quality of their brand new products, and boost their profit margins.

To achieve this new status and relaunch their image, they are planning to:

The terms preferred by big chocolate manufacturers to redeem their image are Bean-to-bar and Single Origin.

Nestlé launched its Swiss bean-to-bar chocolate online in 2015. Read more on ConfectioneryNews.com

Bean-to-bar indicates chocolate made starting from the cocoa beans. Chocolate makers source the beans from the places of origin (or buy them from distributors) and process them into chocolate. Single Origin refers to chocolate made with cacao from one specific place (country, region or single estate).

These words were born in the craft chocolate movement.

They now inspire trust and admiration, but it took craft chocolate makers nearly a decade to educate their audience. Tastings, workshops, factory tours, interviews, seminars. It was a huge effort to make consumers understand why craft chocolate was worth the money.

Consumers started getting interested in the terms Bean-to-bar and Single Origin in the past couple of years thanks to craft chocolate makers.

Once exposed to these new concepts, consumers seemed very interested. From market research to Google search, they revealed a growing preference for chocolate holding these words on its packaging.

This comes with no surprise.

These terms perfectly fit in today’s demand. Bean-to-bar satisfies the need for food created from scratch with simple and recognizable ingredients. Single origin reassures consumers on the source of their food.

Big chocolate manufacturers saw the marketing potential in these words and decided to cash in. What was the effort of the craft chocolate movement now becomes a marketing tool for corporations.

But are the terms Bean-to-bar and Single Origin reliable anyway?

Unfortunately, these words are not a badge of honor by themselves.

Are “bean-to-bar” and “single origin” signs of quality?

Bean-to-bar only indicates that the chocolate is made from the cacao beans. The company selling the products didn’t buy someone else’s chocolate. It made the chocolate from scratch by processing the beans.

Making bean-to-bar chocolate is a hustle and an honorable activity. However, the term itself doesn’t hold any guarantee of quality.

Bean-to-bar chocolate can be made with poorly fermented, genetically inferior or moldy beans. At the same time, the chocolate maker can be inexperienced and incompetent. Putting a big Bean-to-bar sign on a chocolate bar doesn’t say much about the craft chocolate maker. Forget about a big chocolate manufacturer.

Single Origin doesn’t imply any higher quality either.

The place of origin is no reassurance. Not all the wine made in Italy or France is high-quality and worth the price. The same goes for chocolate. Latin American countries are known for producing great cacao. And bad one as well.

Assuming that the cacao from a country is better than the one from another is a big mistake. Some countries might have a better reputation and historical chocolate tradition. However, the Single Origin indication shouldn’t be trusted blindly.

Godiva’s unique selling proposition for its new Single Origin bars is:

“Mexico is the truth birthplace of chocolate, and its beans are known for their purity of origin, smoothness, and dept of flavor.”

This doesn’t guarantee that the cacao used is of good genetics, wisely fermented or well-processed.

Many factors are involved in the making of high-quality chocolate. Being “bean-to-bar” or “single origin” is not enough.

The victims of this marketing around vocabulary are unaware consumers. Those that are making an effort to buy good quality chocolate but don’t really know how. Looking for some handholds, they rely on terms like Bean-to-bar and Single Origin.

Craft chocolate makers are battling this usurpation of terms by specifying the origin of their beans as much as possible. Many craft chocolate bars now reveal the name of the single estate where the cacao beans are from. This is something that we might never see on an industrial chocolate bar.

In the end, big chocolate manufacturers are looking at craft chocolate makers for successful strategies. They want a stake of the great success that the craft chocolate movement is experiencing. To fix their bleeding financial statements, they are using terms that now evokes trust and admiration. Will consumers fall in the trap?

What do YOU think of big manufacturers using craft chocolate terms?

I did NOT get paid and did NOT receive any kind of favor for writing this article. These are my honest opinions at your service.

Comments

Great remarks on this phenomenon, Sharon.
I think that the problem of terms like “bean-to-bar”, “single-origin”, “craft” does not regard only big manufacturers, but even upstarts and smaller companies taking advantage of the market trend.
The fact is consumers remain not enough educated and aware of the difference between a product and another. Companies disclose only the best side of their products. Full transparency remains a chimeric application as long as food regulations permit nonsense.

It takes hours and hours to educate consumers. But doing this job, we can assure consumers are more prepare to take a smart decision when buying chocolate or any other kind of product. Thank you for sharing!

Hi,
We are producers of cocoa (www.mountains-of-the-moon.com).
Of course it was a question of time before big producers would join this market ………. but as MAST BROTHERS showed, size is no guarantee either for honesty…..
True bean to bar chocolate makers should have no problem to publish their source of cocoa and to delineate whether its a plantation, region, country or continent…. Analogous to wine, you then know whether you will get a red, a European red, an Italian red, a Toscan red ….. or a true Brunello from producer xxx of year zzz.
Its up to the genuine bean-to-bar producer to show what separates him from others!

By “industrial chocolate bar” do you mean big company, with big fancy factory, cranking out chocolate? Does Valrhona Gran Couva 2015, from the San Juan Estate qualify then? How about the Artisan Foods Division of Hershey owning Scharffenberger and making a single origin bar? Their Ben Tre Single Origin was pretty impressive.

I think getting bought out has to still be a possible exit strategy for many small companies. And what better way to spread the skill and ideas than for a big company to buy a small craft maker and fund the expansion of their model. I do not think it is a trap consumers are falling in to, but rather a logical continuation and growth of a market based on a good idea. It happened in coffee before chocolate. Beer before coffee. And probably many other finely crafted products.

I feel an increasing number of small companies who haven’t previously worked with single origin chocolate are also using these terms to misrepresent what they do slightly and try and gather new customers who might seek out certain sourcing practices. If consumers don’t know what to look for they don’t know they might be buying melted down, unflavoured, mass produced couveture which people are presenting as ‘our single origin bars’.

What you just mentioned Karen, happened to me here in Calgary. In fact the local chocolatier who did just that, went one step further: he entered the remelted chocolate into the International Academy of Chocolate Awards competition last year in the 80% bean to bar category and won silver!!! Not only did Bernard Callebaut (yes I am using his name) blatantly lie about his submission, but when I complained to the competition, they fabricated the excuse that they simply had to rely on integrity of the competitors. What BS. All they needed to do was request an accompanying sample of unroasted, and roasted beans used to make the chocolate. No mass manufacturer is going to give that up to a rinky dink chocolatier.

It’s really hard to do business in this industry and differentiate one’s product in a fair and ethical fashion, when one’s peers muddy the waters with impunity.

Brad – Yes, I’m in the UK and unfortunately we believe similar things have happened regarding awards. It can be frustrating trying to get stockists, trade at events when there are local companies who appear to be doing a similar thing. I spoke to one once upon first discovering the company and he was completely flustered by questions about what kit he used, where he got his beans, how he winnowed etc!

You nail it Sharon. Bean-to-bar and single origin certainly does not equal better. It’s like a blended wine, which I love. Blended beans or grapes can create a harmonious and wonderful combination of flavors. Single bean can be much more difficult to get that perfect flavor. Some of the best chocolates I’ve had have been single bean, but also from the best, most experienced, small manufacturers in the world. I would not trust the large multi-national manufacturers and tons of smaller inexperienced ones to be able to match this quality. Let alone the possibility of fraud. Unfortunately, we all know some manufacturers have no problem manipulating and stretching the truth for a buck.

If the big companies are willing to support local cocoa farmers and go through the same procedures as small companie to “prove” that their products are what they say, then I’m all for it. Big companies get on board with social and economic trends can have a huge impact for better or worse.

It’s no surprise that big chocolate makers are co-opting these terms, this has been going on for a long time within so many different industries. It does represent a turning point and may be an indicator that the “craft” movement is gaining some momentum.

Personally, I think it still there is a very a long way to go in educating consumers, and most people still go glassy eyed like a deer in the headlights when you start talking to them about “craft”, “artisan” or any type of chocolate making.

I think an important point that the “craft” movement has failed to work on is not just on how chocolate is made on a small scale, but the difference between fine flavor beans and everyday bulk beans. It’s not just how the beans are acquired (direct trade versus buying commodity beans on the open market), but the difference between the types of beans.

Since the industry on both the large and small scale is still rife with tenuous and questionabel claims about everything from bean origin and acquisition to processing methods and final products, consumers first off should be wary of any claims from any producer, both large and small. At least with small producers, there may be someone who the consumer can actually talk to, to verify and fact check the story behind their product, where as large companies can hide behind their shiny corporate veneer.

We keep seeing this but at the end of the day, many manufacturers are getting Fair Trade certification by buying cocoa in Latin/South America thereby burying their heads in the sand about the child trafficking and child labour situation in West Africa.

We at C.R.E.E.R would like to see more chocolatiers building relationships with planters to be able to offer a better gate price and therefore enable them to recruit local adults to assist. It would be wonderful to have a certification for this!

Child trafficking is still a major problem in the region for cocoa as well as other industries. We have a transit centre for these children where we offer an education whilst aiming to repatriate them if the families can financially cope with their return.

Aloha! All very true and we’ll put Chocolate people. Having worked at this cacao/ Chocolate thing for 15 years now,I’ve learned a lot.
Quality in growing and processing has been quite an education. You can’t make inferior beans into great Chocolate. Here in Hawaii we are evolving our growing and processing methods monthly. I was inspired to grow Cacao and then make a chocolate bar that I could actually eat. It took years and I’m grateful for all the help I received from all of you. My Chocolate isn’t the best ,but certainly well above the worst. I congratulate all of you in the industry ( growers,processors and chocolateliers for your continuous pursuit for quality. Aloha

Love the article, spot on in many ways. In the US, manufacturers are constantly seeking ways to induce sales and interest from consumers, so obviously jumping on to the newest buzz words, whether proven to be reliable of not, help some of the giants grab a little of the attention with a ” me too ” add on. Depending on the market where you live, buy, and shop, consumers are quickly becoming more skeptical, and wanting to try, taste, and discover by themselves. So many gourmet shops have tastings, like wine shops, where you can taste and learn, they purchase. Manufacturers also make smaller bite size product lines, where you can get a small piece, and if you like , purchase a larger bar, or get a few to sample on your own. The younger set, and the healthier eating consumer are great people to attract, and can remain loyal buyers as well. But… be honest about your product.

Traceability of meat is very common now and expected by consumers so the thought of chocolate traceability is interesting! It would be interesting to read where the bean was grown and where what you hold in your hand has been sourced! Good article